Turkmenistan, Afghanistan,Pakistan and India (TAPI) Gas Pipeline Project breaks ground at Turkmenistan’s border with Afghanistan Friday Feb 23,2018

Turkmenistan, Afghanistan,Pakistan and India (TAPI) on Friday Feb 23,2018 ceremonially broke ground on the Afghan section of an ambitious, multi-billion dollar gas pipeline, expected to help ease energy deficits in South Asia.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov joined Pakistani Premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and India’s Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar for the ceremony at gas-rich Turkmenistan’s border with Afghanistan

Construction on the project started in Turkmenistan on December 13,2015

The quartet aims to complete the 1,840-km (1,143-mile) pipeline and begin pumping natural gas from Turkmenistan’s giant Galkynysh gas fields by the beginning of 2020.


While the pipeline will traverse war-wracked Afghanistan, raising security concerns, the bulk of the 33 billion cubic metres of gas to be pumped annually through the conduit will be purchased by South Asian rivals Pakistan and India.